Netanyahu & Co. must be proud of Mubarak and his thugs
For many years I believed that Israel’s leaders have no equals in the business of saying one thing and doing another. But Mubarak has proved me wrong. He went on television to tell Egyptians that he would be staying on for some months because only he could restore stability and set the stage for it to continue after he stepped down. Hours later his thugs were leading a violent attack on the peaceful, pro-democracy protesters in Cairo’s Tahir square.
To his credit Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron was the first Western leader prepared to indicate that he was not fooled. With UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon at his side, he stepped out of Number 10 Downing Street to say that if the “regime” in Cairo was “sponsoring or tolerating” the violence, it was “despicable” and that such action was completely unacceptable.
To their credit the BBC’s World Service rolling television news presenters and reporters were asking the right questions about who was behind the violence from almost the moment it started. With a little time for reflection, Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen delivered an excellent report in which he said the following. “The pro-Mubarak demonstrations were well organised, not spontaneous. Numbered buses unloaded supporters. Many placards looked as if they had been made by professional sign writers.” This report also had a pro-democracy campaigner saying, “Mubarak will destroy the whole nation before he goes.” The report concluded with Jeremy, close up to camera, commenting, “He won’t go quietly.”
Eventually U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was on the same page as Britain’s Cameron. She telephoned Omar Suleiman, Mubarak’s new vice-president (the Egyptian police state’s intelligence chief for two decades and who was/is regarded by Israel’s Mossad as a colleague in common cause). Clinton condemned the violence and said people had to be called to account for what was “a clear attempt to intimidate the protesters.” She also told Suleiman the transition to a more democratic society had to start “now”. (When reporters subsequently asked what “now” meant, a spokesman replied, “Yesterday”).
Off-the-record, Western diplomats seemed to be in no doubt that the violence was led by some of Mubarak’s state security agents including policemen with their uniforms off. Unfortunately for the regime, some forgot to discard their ID cards and they were found on the thugs when they were grabbed and searched by pro-democracy campaigners.
The Mubarak regime’s strategy was (and at the time of writing still is) to discredit the pro-democracy campaigners by causing Egyptians to have an overwhelming fear of insecurity, and thus an inclination to side with the regime on the grounds that ending the anti-Mubarak protests is essential if stability is to return and be maintained.
What of Mubarak himself? I imagine he believes that if he can see off the protestors, he can use the time he thinks he has left in power to create a new order that will carry on when he is gone from where his old one left off. That is most certainly the outcome Netanyahu & Co want. So they must have been delighted when Mubarak or somebody in his inner circle (government or party) gave the system’s thugs the greenlight for what Mohamed ElBaradie rightly called a “criminal act”.
In theory it’s now Egypt’s generals who will decide when Mubarak goes. The problem is that many of them are deeply corrupt, and few if any will relish the idea of being the one who tells him that his time is up.
It might take a telephone call from Obama to one of them to make it happen.
If it doesn’t happen, Egypt might be heading on what remains of Mubarak’s long watch for economic collapse and complete chaos, even something approaching civil war. (I don’t think the lady who told the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen that Mubarak will destroy everything before he goes would necessarily be proved right by events. But she could be).
Footnote
A short while ago an anti-Zionist Jewish friend called to ask what I think the Mossad is up to at the moment. I said I thought it was not impossible that some of its best are in Cairo advising the Mubarak regime on what has to be done if its life is to be extended. I also said I thought it was highly probable that Mossad agents and assets deep inside the intelligence, military and political institutions of other key Arab states were assisting their rulers to formulate counter-democracy strategies.
Hatuxka:
February 3rd, 2011 at 4:59 pm
What you describe in the footnote has been on my mind a lot, too!
Tom Mysiewicz:
February 3rd, 2011 at 5:12 pm
I’m a cynic. I think Israeli strategists wanted unrest of the type Mubarak’s thugs were attempting to provoke. Their goal? Destabilizing the country, provoking a 21st Century Suez Crisis and bringing in foreign troops to keep “order” in Egypt–leaving Israel free to attack Lebanon (whose Hezbolloah government it suddenly seems little concerned about), Syria and Iran. The Egyptian military would be effectively neutralized. Israel might even be able to reoccupy the Sinai in the confusion as a necessary move to protect itself from the Egyptian unrest. Fortunately, I think the Egyptians have seen through this strategy as evidenced by the Army’s suppression of the organized provocateurs. Now that the cat is out of the bag, the Israelis are suddenly screaming about the “sacred” peace process–which its illegal policies have virtually destroyed. The al-Jazeera revelations show a grovelling PA accepting conditions even beyond the “chicken coops” Bill Clinton tried to impose–and being spurned by their Israeli counterparts! Now the world is being called on to “guarantee” Israel’s 1979 peace with Egypt? Or we might see a “Hamasistan” in Egypt. The real fear being that a friendly Iran and Egypt might pose a real military threat.
Tom Mysiewicz:
February 4th, 2011 at 12:14 am
Just read the Neocon former UN Ambassador John Bolton’s comments in the N.Y. Times (on Raw Story). He says Israel will have to move up its timetable for attacking Iran if Mubarak falls. I guess their thinking is no longer a big mystery.
Paul de Burgh-Day:
February 4th, 2011 at 4:40 am
If Mubarak is succeeded by Omar Suleiman, the Egyptians will fall from the frying pan into the fire.
Suleiman has a long relationship in Israel with its Mossad. As Mubarak’s security head – and torturer par excellence, his rise to dictatorial power would no doubt suit Netanyahu – and the CIA.
This would be a tragic outcome for the Egyptian people.
As Michel Chossudovsky points out
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22993
“Dictators” do not dictate, they obey orders.
Given that the orders come via Washington, London and Tel Aviv, how do the Egyptian protesters confront that? And given that US presidents, British PMs and Israeli PMs are themselves puppets, doing as they are told, how do the people of this planet – let alone the Egyptians – deal with that?
Yes, some nations – like Iran – have broken the shackles. They are immediately branded as ‘enemies’, vilified, undermined, threatened with war. Particularly if they are seen as ‘important’ to western interests.
Beware the nice words from David Cameron, Hillary Clinton, Obama et al.
This is all an illusion!
Elandalussii:
February 4th, 2011 at 10:53 am
Questions to Mr. Hart:
What do you think about this apparent contradiction between Obama urging Mubarack to “degage” and the Zionit State government wanting the dictatorship to continue ?
Is there any strategic chess game between Obama versus zionists in Washington ? Was Obama clan planning for the uprises in Tunisia & Egypte ? So that to restore US authority over Nethanyahu and the zionist state ?
Vera Gottlieb:
February 4th, 2011 at 2:27 pm
Again and again we keep hearing “the US this, the US that”. For heaven’s sake…tell the Yanks to pack and leave. It is the US that is at the root of all this, supporting a dictator for so many years and in all these years never bothering about Egyptians’ human rights or anything else. Two-faced and forked tongues…that is what the Americans are.
Edoardo Rozza:
February 4th, 2011 at 3:09 pm
MisterHart, here like in Tunisia and Yemen there are something NOT CLEAR. Who really are acting here and why NOW. The Abe Obama is a mistery. He dont work more following the Tel Aviv agenda? I know very well the egyptians that I call joking “meshy meshy inshallah” because they repeat all the time this on mobile. They, spontanoiusly, have GO GUT to do this. So I repeat, who is behind, who started all this? Thanks
John Goodfellow:
February 4th, 2011 at 5:20 pm
Police provoking peaceful protesters? Sounds like the U.K. recently. It wouldn’t surprise me at all that British, American and Israelis are behing the Egyptian problems, we Brit’s at any rate have been stirring it for hundreds of years, we’re good at it, and the Israelis are even better. The Americans are catching up, though a bit too obvious, too gung ho, no subtlety. There is going to be much trouble because of it, as the middle eastern races catch on, they will start to get angry and begin to chew on the tails of western Lions. (Iran) I certainly hope so anyway, and I hope those in charge of our countries right now get the worst of it.
rosemary spiota:
February 7th, 2011 at 10:42 pm
Ehudmubarakobama! Lovely combination!
I just heard the NATO commander on BBC news telling us that the troubles in Tunisia and Egypt will interfere with local economies, that more illegal Arab immigrants will try to enter Europe,and that this was a timely reminder to NATO not to lose sight of security. This is perhaps the agenda for world peace, USI style.